Avoid the crowds and live like a local when you holiday in the Highlands during low season.
'You picked a great time to come!' is music to any tourist’s ears. But is it really true of Nethy Bridge … in November?!
When we left Scotland to live in a subtropical climate, we were prepared to miss certain things about home. Family and friends: top of the list. Obviously Tunnocks Caramel Wafers. But seasons? I never would have guessed.
I didn’t realise how much I relied on seasons to mark the passage of time until I looked back at our first year away and realized it was actually three. Three years had elapsed in a blur of heat, humidity and indeterminate weather patterns. It happened to be November, but had you told me it was May I would have believed you. Apparently I was lost without the familiar anchor-points in my calendar like falling leaves and migrating geese.
So, seasons: very important for the trees and the birds — and for the Scots, apparently! But which is the best season for visiting the Highlands? Ask a sample of four locals and you are likely to get four different answers. Everyone has their favourite, and for good reason: there is beauty in every season in a place like the Cairngorms National Park.
For me, hands down, it’s autumn. Those high-pressure October days where the blue skies frame the blazing orange leaves, and the warmth of the sun is just about palpable through the knit of your chunkiest sweater.
As October gives way to November, you lose some (a lot!) of that warmth and light. But there is something special about those first unconvincing flurries of snow. A frosty glint on the footpaths and your breath made visible by the early morning air. Woodland walks with a carpet of leaves mulching underfoot and that unmistakable aroma of fermentation and organic decay.
Everyone has their favourite, and for good reason: there is beauty in every season in a place like the Cairngorms National Park.
November has a bad rep, but for me it is about bearing witness to the passage of time. It isn’t the literal fireworks of New Year’s Eve, or the victory lap around the sun as you blow out your birthday candles. It is the understated acknowledgement that there is a reason for every season, and this one is to hunker down: to be like the trees and send your vital energies down into your roots while you hold steady for the harshness of winter.
November is hygge with friends around a cosy log fire.
I know, I know. I’m borderline Scandi-obsessed (currently bingeing Borgen and not sorry) and I’m going to talk about the Dell of Abernethy. Again. But there is so much to love about this whimsical spot in the woods, especially when it’s dark outside and the tipi is all aglow with live music and merriment to welcome you in. November’s Supper Clubs are scheduled for the 18th and 19th, with canapés, fizz, a five-course meal and musical interludes from Scottish indie-folk artists Sorren Maclean and Hannah Fisher. The Dell's Soundscape Meditation Walks run year-round, but I would take one every season if I could. Why? Because the music is woven into the passing landscape and recast with the changing light and colours and whatever else your headspace happens to add into the mix. And if you’re as sold on bearing witness to the seasons as I am, you might like their November retreats too: Grounding into Winter and Relax, Restore and Renew are explorations of self and surroundings, with a bit of ancient wisdom thrown in too!
November is warming up with a whisky tasting.
When we think of whisky, we picture vast copper stills that have stood on the same ground since time immemorial. In other words, we think of our Scottish heritage. But whisky is an industry that moves with the times like any other, and so it has been fascinating to watch the ground-up construction of Scotland’s newest distillery, The Cairn, on the outskirts of Grantown-on-Spey. The architecture is as contemporary as it gets, and yet already it seems rooted in place: nestled on the banks of the meandering River Spey, with curvilinear echoes of the Cromdales opposite and the Cairngorms in the middle distance. For sure, you should taste the old stuff (the first whiskies distilled here won’t be ready for another decade), but meantime why not whet your appetite with something very new indeed. There are a range of curated visitor experiences to choose from, including guided tours of the cutting-edge facility and tastings of various blended malts — even, as it happens, the world’s oldest at 70 years. Tradition and innovation in a single dram!
This is the month that the normally dramatic Cairngorms show their understated side: dark and brooding, like a deep breath of dank air before full-blown winter descends.
November is a lively pub with traditional music.
Nothing gets the blood pumping better than a breakneck round of your favourite reels, washed down with a round of your favourite real ales. Try saying that five times fast after a few trips to the bar! When you’re holidaying in the eastern Highlands, you don’t have to stray far from your home-away-from-home to hear Scottish traditional music. A monthly open-mic night is held in the beautiful Ptarmigan Dome at Loch Insh, hosted by two local talents of world-class renown: Hamish Napier (musician) and Merryn Glover (writer). The Storylands Sessions follow a more structured format than you might find in a pub, but with all the same creative flow and good vibes of gathering together and making something in the moment. Don't worry if you don't have a tune or a story to share ... tapping feet are welcome too! Further afield (by which I mean only 45-minutes by car) you will find Scotland’s 'Best Music Bar' in Inverness. But MacGregors markets itself as ‘more than a bar’ with sessions of a very high standard every Thursday night and Sunday afternoon, and many other days of the week too. The pub’s namesake and founder, Bruce MacGregor of Blazin Fiddles, is a legend of the folk music scene and is often there himself to lead the music.
November is foraging in nature’s larder.
I don’t have mushroom for puns in this blog, and in any case they are in spore taste. OK, ok. I’ll stop! But I do stand by the sentiment: part of enjoying that low season pace of life is paying attention to the little things. When you’re out for your walk in the woods, look down. Has it recently rained, and can you see little copses of chanterelles popping up here and there? It is not uncommon to find that they have flourished overnight during mild and wet Novembers, along with sloes, brambles, rose hips and rowan. Resident food writer Ghillie Başan profiles the region’s seasonal ingredients her book A Taste of the Highlands (there’s a copy in the cottage!). Her Instagram feed is also worth a follow for up-to-date inspiration and recipes. Personally, you won’t catch me bottoms up anywhere in the undergrowth. First, I would almost certainly die an Into the Wild-worthy death; second, there really is no need when so many local chefs and caterers come up with endlessly creative ways to serve up the area’s seasonal offerings. Try Alvie Forest Food for a casual dinner: whatever they find by day is usually incorporated into the menu by night.
November is a nippy dip and a sauna soon after.
Calling all wild swimmers! The waters are well below 7ºC and the air temperature even less. On you go. The loch’s right there! (Can you tell I’m not one of them?!) But I really shouldn’t be churlish, because the numerous health benefits of cold water swimming — or even just cold water splashing — have been widely noted. It improves your circulation, boosts your metabolism and leaves you with a natural endorphin high. So that is why I see so many shiny, happy, shivering figures on the shores of our local lochs! Of course you can warm up afterwards with a steaming Thermos of something hot, or … you can schedule an after-swim visit to the hot tub and sauna room of Cairngorm Beauty Therapy & Spa. If anything is going to persuade me to immerse myself head to toe in frigid loch water, it is the promise of complimentary Prosecco and fluffy towels. For the hardcore swimmers in our midst, connect with Cairngorm Wild Swimmers on Facebook for the latest meetup times and locations.
November anywhere in the northern hemisphere is a hard sell, but the higher you climb — in altitude and likelihood of that first sprinkling of snow — the more magical your visit will be. This is the month that the normally dramatic Cairngorms show their understated side: dark and brooding, like a deep breath of dank air before full-blown winter descends. It is not the Cairngorms of midnight sun and carefree twirling through the pine forest. But it is yours — all yours — and at a snip of the usual price.
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